One of D Udaya Kumar’s favourite pastimes is gardening at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay campus. And he has named two of his favourite plants after goddesses Lakshmi and Saraswati. “I have photographed the moments when I planted them and they are an integral part of my personal website now,” says Kumar.
Both the goddesses have been more than kind to this 32-year-old IITian — his design for the rupee symbol has been accepted by the government and he will also get an award of Rs 2.5 lakh.
Kumar says he has been trying to speak to his parents desperately just to share his excitement. But his instant stardom has come in the way. Though visibly tired, Kumar who lives at hostel seven at the IIT Bombay campus, doesn’t seem to mind the non-stop questioning from the media.
“I am happy to be part of history. I might donate the prize money for some cause,” the man from Chennai says, with a rehearsed precision.
His superstar status has meant that his phone calls are now being managed by his friends who are also taking care of his appointments with the media. His friends have planned a surprised party and are planning to cancel his tickets to Guwahati where is supposed to join as an assistant professor on Friday. Kumar, a doctoral research candidate from the Industrial Design Centre at IIT Bombay, might seek permission of the head of the department in Guwahati to join at a later date.
“We have not been able to even congratulate him properly. We all plan to celebrate this but I guess that will be possible only tomorrow as he has some interviews lined up,” says Kumar’s batch mate Anubhav Kaviratna.
IIT Bombay Director Devang Khakhar is also ecstatic at his student’s achievement. “It feels great to see one more student succeed. There are so many of them who go out and do well. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity and it’s because of the sophisticated research background that IITs provide to its students,” says the professor.
Kumar’s domain of research was typography and more specifically Tamil typography. He entered the contest last year and did intense research on the Devanagari script. “Being a typographer by profession, I knew the symbol has to be simple enough for everyone to write and reproduce. I drew from my thesis work on what symbols could I possibly build the rupee on,” Kumar says.
His basic aim was to provide the Indian rupee international recognition as the country’s economy exerts more influence in the global space, along with isolating the currency from the current abbreviation ‘Rs’ which is also used by neighbouring Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
When he was shortlisted as one of the five finalists from among 3,000 entries, Kumar knew that he was getting closer to the win as his design incorporated Indian ethos. The symbol presented by him is basically based on the letter ‘Ra’ in the Devanagri script. In that, he has added a strikethrough line to represent the Indian flag. He has also tried to incorporate the Roman script ‘R’ within it to have an international appeal.
But for Kumar, creativity is not restricted to just designing symbols. He is also passionate about designing jewelleries and accessories from junk materials in his free time. “If I am not in the playground, then I would be gardening,” he says.
